Assigned to cover the sports car races at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, scheduled for the weekend of February 8-9, 1958, photographer Albert Monteverde positioned himself on the outside of Turn 3 and let the action come to him. Fortunately, the USC Digital Library preserved some of his photos from that outing, and thanks to the information collected at RacingSportsCars.com, we can put some names to the numbers.

So let’s start with the above image, in which we see Bob Winkelmann in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL leading a pack that includes Bob Hoffman’s Corvette, Jerry McGee’s Corvette, Jack Breskovich’s Austin-Healey 100S, Lawrence Clark’s Corvette, a couple of Jaguars, and a couple more Corvettes we couldn’t identify in the Production +2.0 class.

In the same class, William Redden in an Austin-Healey speeds past the stands.

In the Corvette, Bert Ruttman leads another Corvette, Tony Settember in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, and what appears to be an Austin-Healey. The Corvette that’s tailing Ruttman could be the one driven by Frank Cairns, who won the class.

In the S1.5 class, we see another pack coming out from under the bridge, including Lance Reventlow in a Cooper, Joe Playan in a Porsche 550 RS, Skip Conklin in a Lotus Eleven, what appears to be another Lotus Eleven, a couple of Porsches, and something we’ve yet to identify rounding the corner.

Here we see what appears to be at least a couple of combined classes. The leader is Jim Chaffee in his Pink Elephant I MG TD-based Devin-bodied special racing in S1.5, followed by Bob Newman in an MG TF racing in the Production MG class, Rico Verrecchia in a Crosley-based special in S1.5, then a number of unidentified cars in both classes.

Verrecchia had a bit of trouble in the turn, allowing Bill Molle, the “flying dentist,” to slide past him in the Nichols-bodied Fairchild Panhard. Molle apparently went on to win the California Sports Car Club Pacific Coast H-Mod championship and place second in the SCCA regional standings that year.

Redden, who we saw earlier, tails the Corvette of Jim Parkinson, which could very well be the car in the far background of the lead image.

Something on the course made things get slick after a while. Here we see Harry Nicol run his Berkeley Sports into the haybales.

Bob Hoffman’s Corvette got close to the haybales too, but it looks like he fared better than Nicol.

Finally, this sequence has us a little stumped. The only time we see the #98 Corvette entered in the weekend’s races was during the Ladies race, with Shelby Hunsinger behind the wheel. The Arnolt Bristol behind it in the first photo was in the Ladies race as well, driven by Ginny Sims, but none of the other three cars in the photo sequence – Trenor Peter Stanley’s Corvette, Conklin’s Lotus Eleven, or Ruttman’s Corvette – appear to have been entered in the Ladies race. Incomplete scorekeeping for the Ladies race? Incomplete scorekeeping for the #98 Corvette? And why would the Lotus and the Arnolt (which also ran in Production 2.0 with Elmer Grimsgaard driving) be competing alongside the Corvettes?

Great old photos. It’s facinating to be reminded again how casual crowd protection was in that era. I remember attending races at Goleta airport (Santa Barbara) where the course snaked between the hangars, and all that separated the cars from spectators was a line of hay bales. You could almost reach out and touch the cars as they passed. Very fortunate that there were so few incidents.

This was one of the first sportscar races I ever attended, I had been to one race in 1957 at Paramount Ranch. My north birthday was the day after the Pomona race. My memory is that there were more Porsches than these pictures would suggest, and I think Ken Miles was in one of these races.
The bridge is still there, what was the straight is now the drag strip. Great pictures.

Although you correctly identified the Nichols-bodied Fairchild Panhard driven by Bill “Doc” Molle, he was not the “Flying Dentist”.

Dr. Dick Thompson is “The Flying Dentist” . He won numerous Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) championships and was inducted in the Corvette Hall of Fame. Thompson brought credibility to the Corvette as a world-class sports car. Active from the late 1950s until the 1970s, Thompson raced for several notable racers, including the factory Corvette team for John Fitch and Briggs Cunningham.

Thanks for listening and for all your great articles in “Hemmings Daily”. I look forward to reading them all the time.

Great to see the Healey’s in action. These old photos are wonderful. It seems that in the 1950′s the West Coast had a number of great road races.
I’m curious, does anyone know a good resource/archive to research a particular car that raced primarily on the West Coast during this golden age of California road racing? I own an old Austin Healey left to me by my father which has an interesting California road race history. It appears to be a private entry probably driven to the track and driven home after the race. From the log book, the car was very competitive and one a few races. I found a log book and original pit passes raced from Cotati, Vacaville, and Santa Rosa from ’56-’58.
Thanks for any help.
Regardless, I love these old pictures.

I raced me Alfa #37 there on Saturday, the 26th of March 1957. On the way home I rear-ended a guy and was out for Sunday. However, it rained like crazy the day and I have 8mm movies of some of the big drivers spinning out on the back straight, Including old 98, who was I believe Shelby.
My #2 son is named Lance after Reventlow.

Fourth photo, yes, Lance Reventlow brought us the Scarab but the #16 has the top of the rear wheel covered. That car is a Cooper. Great photos and a fantastic first race to attend when I was just 13. Did Max run Old Yeller I at Pomona? Hard to believe he wouldn’t
Great stuff here, thanks